">My Big World Of Crap

They start young these days.   A teacher was on yard duty during recess at Swallowcliffe Primary School at Davoren Park on Wednesday when two students threw a brick at her, hitting her in the back of the head. As she lay on the ground semi-conscious, the two students stole her office keys and stole more than $400 from her purse.

Charming!

As one parent said:

"It’s very scary, I mean, these are only 12-year-olds.”

I wonder what the parents of those kids think of it.  Probably couldn’t care less unfortunately.  Davoren Park is a disadvantaged area, and according to a Primary Principals Association spokesman:

"In areas like Davoren Park, unfortunately a lot of parents of students there haven’t been successful at school and don’t see a lot of value in school. There’s not that positive reinforcement about schools as places to go to where you can be successful,"

while a representative of the teachers’ union said this:

"In the recent arbitration case, for example, we’ve been pointing to that that staff are dealing with social problems, not just educational issues. Poverty. Violence. Neglect. All of these things are just part and parcel of a teacher’s daily work,"

I know this has been going on for years but is there anyone who doesn’t think its wrong that teachers spend so much effort trying to deal with social and family problems rather than concentrating on providing the best education for children.  It shouldn’t be their role.

But the problem of the behaviour at this particular school has been dealt with.  According to the Deputy Chief Executive of the Education Department:

"We’ve had a school assembly and spoken to the students again. The whole approach of the school, the students and the school community needs to be focused on appropriate behaviour."

So the kids have been told that chucking bricks at teachers and stealing from them is wrong.  It beggars belief that any kid more than about 3 years old doesn’t intrinsically know this (and I’m probably being harsh on most 3 year olds in this assessment).  What were their parents doing for the 7-12 years that the primary school kids had been their responsibility?  Oh hang on, all you need to be a parent is the capacity to have sex and conceive – no requirement to have even some basic life skills, parenting skills, the economic capacity to provide for them or anything like that.   (and the scary thought is that those poorly equipped to parent children tend to have more of them than people who do have the personal, financial and other resources to do it … so if we continue down the current path things will get worse over time).

I think this is very much a case of that.  3 families are preparing to sue the Victorian government and its roads department for allegedly failing to prevent the deaths of loved ones who jumped from a bridge, in these cases Melbourne’s Westgate bridge.

On February 5 2009, 17-year-old Allem Halkic took his own life by jumping from the bridge after being bullied on a social networking website.  His family and two others are preparing joint lawsuits against authorities for failing to establish anti-jump barriers.   Father Ali Halkic said many more lives would have been saved if authorities had acted earlier and if better camera surveillance identified at-risk people on the bridge:

"Allem was our only son and we know at his moment of weakness the West Gate called his name,"

"But he should never have been able to walk that (1.2km) distance to his death and VicRoads, knowing how many lives have been lost, should have had measures in place to prevent these types of deaths."

he said.

A 2004 coroner’s report recommended anti-suicide fencing and senior police had for several years urged the Government and VicRoads to install the barriers. The State Government announced in December 2008 that it would erect safety barriers on the bridge, and temporary barriers were erected early last year (prompted no doubt by the death of 4 year old girl Darcey Freeman whose father allegedly threw her from the bridge – a year ago tomorrow).

I have no problems with governments, companies and individuals being held accountable for their negligence.  However in this case I think its stretching things too far to claim the owners of a bridge had a duty of care to prevent people wishing to kill themselves by jumping off it from doing so.  Sure, if there was evidence that people were at risk of accidentally falling from the bridge, yes there is a duty of care.  But there is no evidence that has ever happened, the people in question deliberately went there to kill themselves and in so doing circumvented the safety measures in place for normal bridge users.  It strikes me that these families are looking to blame someone for the tragedy they have experienced, and conveniently, that someone happens to be the party most likely to have the deepest pockets.

One thing mentioned was that since the safety barriers were erected the number of “incidents” on the bridge have been virtually eliminated.  I wonder if it means suicides were prevented, or it just diverted those individuals to finding another means of killing themselves?

There was a terrible road smash near Batemans Bay a few days ago.  A petrol tanker ran out of control and crashed into some cars, then burst into flames.  2 young girls in one of the cars, and the truck driver were killed.  Others were injured, including the parents of the dead girls who are now in a critical condition in hospital.  Terrible tragedy, no doubt about it.

However, what takes the cake for me is the Daily Telegraph (a tabloid newspaper in Sydney) concentrating much of their reporting on the abhorrent behaviour of people who witnessed this crash filming it on their mobile phones rather than trying to help save the girls who died.   According to one of the witnesses who did try to help the victims:

"There were a lot of people coming with towels, there were a lot of people coming with water and then there was the younger generation with their mobile phones."

Yes I think that standing around filming such a tragedy is ghoulish and unacceptable behaviour by those who did it – shame on them!  But the hypocrisy of the media, and particularly a trashy tabloid like the Telegraph banging on about how terrible they were (and especially that it was the younger people – get in a bit of generation X/Y (whatever it is?) bashing at every opportunity) is astounding.  I’d guarantee that if one of these people who filmed the crash called them and offered the footage for a price, it would be all over their website within minutes – and on the TV news also.  These are the same people who actively encourage members of the public to send in pictures, videos and tips about news stories – some of them just about offer prizes for good stuff – and then they act all shocked when people actually do it.   Get off your high horse!

There is some sort of debate going on among the locals around The Gap in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.  The Gap is a scenic ocean cliff, and a well known suicide spot – some 50 people kill themselves each year by jumping off the cliff onto the rocks below.

The local council is lobbying the Federal Government to support its $3.5 million suicide prevention plan, which includes security cameras, lighting, a safety phone and a new fence stretching for more than 80 metres along the cliff line.  Woollahra Council Mayor Andrew Petrie claims:

“There is evidence that these types of measures we are putting in will have an effect on reducing suicides. There is no doubt about it,”

But others are not convinced.  Some believe the fence will just transfer the problem elsewhere, while others say the plan will compromise The Gap’s natural beauty.  One local resident said:

“It’ll look like a prison if it’s got cameras and a big fence and everything. I don’t think we need it,”

The council has committed $500,000 to the project, but its request for further money was denied in May by the Federal Government, which claimed it had more urgent spending priorities.

I think this debate raises some interesting questions about how far we as a community go in protecting people from themselves.  I’m particularly interested in the things authorities do with places like national parks in terms of making the wild safe.  Do we need fences in front of cliffs to stop people harming themselves, either accidentally or intentionally?  Do we restrict access to places for similar reasons?  Shouldn’t people be trusted to have enough commonsense to think for themselves “there’s a cliff edge there, its dangerous, I must be careful”, without having to have a dirty big fence way back from the edge to keep them safe? Or “don’t stand on these rocks, a big wave might sweep you out to sea”, “the ocean has sharks in it”, “this is a river in Northern Australia so it most likely has crocodiles in it”.  Most of these things should be bleeding obvious to a normal intelligent person, but no, we have to have barriers to stop people, or signs plastered all over things to warn people.  I think we make eyesores out of things to dumb the possible risks down to the lowest level, rather than accepting that people should be taking responsibility for themselves in potentially hazardous places.

I went to the Head of the (Great Australian) Bight many years ago, and stood right on the edge of the cliff to look down.  I haven’t been there since but I’m betting its almost certain that the same places now have paths and fences and these are well back from the edge.

As for The Gap being a favoured suicide spot, a fence isn’t going to change people’s propensity to kill themselves.  They’ll just go elsewhere or do it a different way.

Tiger Woods, the world’s best golfer, has had a really shit week.  First of all, that car accident, where he crashed into a fire hydrant and tree outside his house.  No big deal, you’d think.  However, he is being damn evasive about the circumstances of it.

Initial reports were that he had been in an accident and his wife, Elin, had broken the car’s window with a golf club to free him, and pulled him from the car and lay him on the ground, which is where he was when the ambulance arrived at his house.  But media speculation surrounding Friday’s crash includes a scenario in which Elin confronted Woods about an alleged affair and chased him with a golf club, smashing in the rear windows of the vehicle as Woods tried to flee, causing him to lose control.

That affair was allegedly with Rachel Uchitel.  She dismissed the rumours, saying she had met Woods twice in her life and only in her professional capacity as director of VIP services at a New York night club.  Woods has called the rumours "unfounded and malicious".

Tiger’s wife is the blonde in the middle of this picture, Rachel Uchitel is on the right.

Now, things have gotten worse for Tiger, with another woman coming out of the woodwork to claim she had an affair with him.  Jaimee Grubbs, 24, a Las Vegas cocktail waitress, has claimed she has details and evidence of a 31-month affair.  She claims she began an affair with Woods in April 2007 and ‘‘she has more than 300 text messages - some of them described as ‘racy’ - to prove it’.

The website RadarOnline.com reported one of the text messages allegedly sent by Woods read: “I will wear you out … when was the last time  you got (bleeped)?”  Another text message allegedly read: “Send me something very naughty … Go to the bathroom and take (a picture)".

But its getting worse – apparently there’s quite a string of women lining up to claim they had sex with Tiger Woods.  Wonder if they are all gold diggers looking to cash in on his fame and wealth, or there is any truth amongst all the claims?  Whatever the case, Woods’ privacy, which he is very protective of, is going to be sorely tested over the next few weeks.  His to-date squeaky clean public image is taking a bit of a hammering, and seems likely to continue to do so until he either fesses up or is able to refute the claims of the various women.

Interest in the matter is so high, there is even a market on Woods’ marital status as of the end of the year.

Which of these would you put money on?

PS – something that surprised me in this story is that Tiger Woods’ house is said to be worth only $3m.  In the scheme of things, for a reported billionaire, that’s very restrained and modest.

I’ve been doing and still have quite a bit of flying to do this year.  So reading about the 2 pilots on the Northwest Airlines flight who missed their destination is not exactly inspiring me with confidence.  There were suspicions that the pilots missed their landing in Minneapolis by 241 kilometres because they were arguing, or were asleep, but they are now claiming that they were discussing airline scheduling and using their laptops.  Hmmm, ok, so the guys driving the plane aren’t concentrating on the job at hand, but mucking around on their computers.  Sort of puts using a mobile phone while driving to shame.

The pilots were out of communication with air-traffic controllers and their airline for more than an hour and did not realise their mistake until contacted by a flight attendant asking about making preparations for landing.  I bet that was one of those “oh shit” moments for the pilots.  Air-traffic controllers in Denver and Minneapolis repeatedly tried without success to raise the pilots of the flight by radio. Other pilots in the vicinity tried reaching the plane on other radio frequencies. Their airline tried contacting them using a radio text message that chimes.  Authorities became so alarmed that National Guard jets were readied for take-off at two locations.

Despite what the pilots claim happened, people are having difficult swallowing it.  Many aviation safety experts had said it was more plausible that the pilots had fallen asleep during the cruise phase of their flight  than that they had become so focused on a conversation that they lost awareness of their surroundings.

I’m not sure which fills me with less confidence about flying, the pilots distracted, arguing or falling asleep.

Northwest Airlines, pilots, Minneapolis

Meghan McCain, daughter of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, specifically is the one I’m talking about.  She posted a picture of herself in a tanktop, displaying a fair bit of boobage, on Twitter, and it really got the wowsers stirred up.  Here is the picture in question:

Shocking isn’t it?  Titillating in fact.  Woopitty do - she has breasts.  Amazing - she is a woman and most of them have a pair.

Nevertheless she felt the need to apologise for posting the picture, to anyone that was offended by her Twitpic.  Personally I’d have been inclined to tell them to suck it up and deal with it, plus get a life.

Meghan McClain, Twitter, Twitpic, breasts

Kraft proudly launched its new Vegemite variant on Saturday, calling it iSnack 2.0.  This name was decided upon following a national competition to pick a name for the new product, which is a mixture of the traditional Vegemite and cream cheese.

Following almost unanimous scoffing by Australians at the stupid name of the product, Kraft announced today they were dumping the name and holding another competition to find a better name. 

Now there’s just the small problem of about 500,000 jars of the stuff that Kraft need to sell.

Here’s a couple of suggestions.  Maybe they could force feed it to the marketing executives who signed off on the stupid name as being a good idea?  Maybe ust give it to the guy who dreamed up the name and won the contest?

Meanwhile, I’ll stick to the normal Vegemite on my toast – spread thinly thanks if anyone wants to make me some toast.

In this case, children.   Sydney mother-of-two Melissa Blackley is so obsessed with work that she doesn’t know what her children eat for lunch and hasn’t cooked dinner in two years.  Her and her partner, John Anderson, are both high-powered sales executives and are so focused on work that neither of them knows what time their children go to school. Mr Anderson said he only has "a pretty good idea" of the school’s location.  Both of them work at least 12 hours a day.

"Our jobs are incredibly important to us and an extension of that is having a BlackBerry which distracts me when I am home,"

"I find work exciting and engaging. It’s easy to drift off and do work rather than playing dominos."

The couple maintain their relationship largely by email.  Each day they run a "dutch auction" to decide which parent will take their children to their extra-curricular activities, like music lessons.

Ms Blackley outsourced much of the responsibility of raising her children to her 69-year-old mother, who quit her own job at her daughter’s behest just months after India was born. Grandma arrives at the family’s Randwick home at 6am every weekday to look after the children.

"I asked her (to resign from work) because like many mums I was concerned about my baby going into childcare,"

Ms Blackley said.

A few observations I would make about this:

• why have children if you’re going to spend so little time with them?  I mean, whats the point?
• I wonder how the children feel about their place in their parents’ list of life priorities
• I’m surprised her mother didn’t tell her to take a hike when asked to quite her job and care for the grandchildren – my mum would have told me to get real and get my priorities right – and that she’d done her fill of child raising with my brother, sister and me, and it is up to me and my wife to raise our own kids
• I’m amazed she’d think that asking her mum to do this was a reasonable thing to do.

Many would actually argue quite the opposite in fact.

However, a woman in Scotland was banned from getting married due to social workers deciding she was not intelligent enough to get married.  Kerry Robertson, 17, who is five-months pregnant was preparing to marry Mark McDougall when social services told her she would have to cancel her big day because she "did not understand the implications of getting married".  Under Scottish law, a registrar may refuse to marry a couple if he believes one or both the parties lack the mental capacity to understand what the institution of marriage is about.  Kerry has mild learning difficulties and has been in the care of her grandmother since she was nine-months-old after her parents were unable to look after her.  She will now undergo a psychologist’s assessment to determine if she is too unintelligent to get married. 

The couple said they are concerned their baby may be taken away from them if the council decides they are not smart enough to be parents.  Mr McDougall said Miss Robertson’s learning difficulties are not severe and the decision was cruel.  He said:

“It’s true she is not very academic, but she is nowhere near as stupid as social services are making out.

"She is a loving caring person. She can also read and write, although not very well, and was going to college to catch up.

"I didn’t even know she had learning difficulties until we’d been dating for two months.

"For the first time in her life Kerry was truly happy so we cannot understand what all the fuss is about."

This all got me thinking how useful it would be if all people wanting to get married, or have sex with each other, actually had to pass some sort of tests of their intelligence and of their emotional fitness to be parents.  Think of all the social problems that might be avoided if people actually had to meet some sort of standard of fitness to be together. 

For example, no-one will believe it if you win an election with 100% of the votes, even if you’re in North Korea and your name is Kim Jong-il.

But in Papua New Guinea, the election of Transport Minister, Don Polye, to his seat in the national parliament, with 100% of the votes, was successfully challenged by his opponent.   In PNG, where elections are often rigged and fixed, it’s common for the losing candidate to challenge the elected member through the courts. Alfred Manase took his opponent Polye to court on 35 ground of impropriety.

Judge Greg Lay on Friday ruled Polye was not duly elected due to errors and omissions by electoral officers and supporters during polling. One issue with the election win was that Polye received 100 per cent of the vote, he said.

"Applying common sense, logic and in my almost 65 years of life experience, I have concluded that this just does not happen,"

Judge Lay said.

100%. C’mon, thats just greedy and stupid.  Had Mr Polye gone for a more modest win, like 75% of the vote, and rigged his way to that, at least it would have been within the realms of credibility, much more difficult to challenge.  He should have remembered that you only need 50% + 1 of the votes to win an election.

Police were busy in Victoria yesterday morning, 400 of them executing 19 search warrants in connection with a suspected terrorist plot.  Four men of Somali and Lebanese descent were arrested. A fifth man was already in custody over an unrelated matter.  They are alleged to have been planning an attack on Sydney’s Holsworthy army barracks.  The arrests were apparently the result of a 7 month long police investigation.

The men who appeared in court today were Abdirahman Ahmed, Yacqub Khayre, Nayef El Sayed and Wissam Mahmoud Fattal.  The fourth man, Saney Edow Aweys, was expected to appear later.  They have been charged with preparing for a terrorist attack. 

The raids were carried out because police believed a suicide attack was imminent.  They believed Abdirahman Ahmed, who returned from the war-torn country only three weeks ago might have secretly obtained a fatwa from a sheik in Somalia.  Two members of the group are believed to have travelled to Somalia to train with the militant extremist group Al-Shabaab, which the US believes has links with al-Qa’ida. But when other members of the group could not travel to Somalia, they turned their attention to carrying out an act of terror in Australia.  Police believe the group planned to launch a suicide assault on Holsworthy army base using automatic weapons. It is alleged they planned to kill as many soldiers as possible before they were themselves killed.

The men showed their lack of respect for our society in court.  Two of them refused to stand when asked by the magistrate – citing religious grounds, that they would not stand for anyone but God.   Others claimed to be too tired to answer questions.  Fattal, as he was being led from the court,  accused Australia of killing innocent people in Afghanistan and Iraq and said "you call us terrorists - I’ve never killed anyone in my life". He also said Palestinians were labelled as terrorists while Israelis forcedly took land from them.

What I don’t understand is why these dickheads want to live in Australia but still carry on like they are jihadist savages in the back blocks of Mogadishu.  If they want things here to be like Somalia, just fuck off and go live there.  Better still, get themselves over there and into some inter-factional warfare amongst the various jihadi militias – kill each other, not innocent people. 

It really pisses me off when people come to Australia and can’t leave behind their old hatreds in their old country.  Message to these people – you’re in a new country, leave your grudges behind.  If you want to continue them, fuck off back to your old country and fight away to your heart’s content, just don’t do it here.  In this case its Somali and Lebanese muslims wanting to carry on the fight against just about anyone who doesn’t want to revert back to their 7th century version of how the world should be run.  But the same argument applies to anyone, Arabs vs Jews, Serbs vs Croats, Protestants vs Catholics, Hutu vs Tutsi – I don’t care.  Do not bring your hatred towards each other here – leave it behind.